System and method for analysing data records utilizing a touch screen interface

ABSTRACT

Certain aspects of the present disclosure relate to a technique for analyzing data records using a touch screen interface. A touch event is received from the touch screen interface to relate a first data object with at least a second data object. In response to receiving the touch event, at least one data record of the first data object relating to the second data object is retrieved using a unique identifier of the first data object. A time chart of the first data object for the retrieved at least one data record is constructed based on a time parameter from the retrieved record of the first data object.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.13/033,798 entitled “System and Method for Analysing Data RecordsUtilizing a Touch screen Interface”, filed on Feb. 24, 2011, now issuedU.S. Pat. No. 9,158,888, issued on Oct. 13, 2015, which claims priorityfrom U.S. Provisional application Ser. No. 61/317,741 entitled “Systemand Method for Analysing Data Records Utilizing a Touch ScreenInterface”, filed on Mar. 26, 2010. The above applications areincorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present disclosure relates generally to touch sensitive devices and,more specifically, to a method, apparatus and computer-readable mediumfor analyzing data records using a touch screen interface.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

User interface (UI) is often one of the most important parts of acomputer program because it determines how easily a user can communicatewith the program. A powerful program with a poorly designed UI haslittle value. Text-based and graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that usewindows, icons, and pop-up menus have become standard on personalcomputers. Text-based UIs as well as GUIs typically use an input device,such as a keyboard, mouse or stylus, to provide user input and controlthe movement of a cursor or pointer on a display screen.

Touch-sensitive surfaces are rapidly becoming more common in computingdevices. A natural input device for computing devices withtouch-sensitive surfaces is a user's finger. They are very convenient asthey allow a user to make natural gestures familiar to the user in othercontexts, such as by entering handwriting using a stylus. Many of thesedevices also allow input to be provided by a user's fingertip. The termtouch-sensitive surface or device will be used herein to refer to suchsurfaces or devices that are configured to detect the touch of any typeof “stylus” such as a stylus, stylus type device or a user's finger,fingers, hand or hands.

As portable electronic devices become more compact, and the number offunctions performed by a given device increase, it has become asignificant challenge to design a user interface that allows users toeasily interact with various devices including multifunction devices.This challenge is particularly significant for handheld portabledevices, which have much smaller screens than desktop or laptopcomputers. This situation is unfortunate because the user interface isthe gateway through which users receive not only content but alsorespond to user actions or behaviors, including user attempts to accessa device's features, tools, and functions. Some portable communicationdevices (e.g., PDAs, mobile telephones, sometimes called mobile phones,cell phones, cellular telephones, smart phones, and the like) haveresorted to adding more pushbuttons, increasing the density of pushbuttons, overloading the functions of pushbuttons, or using complex menusystems to allow a user to access, store and manipulate data. Theseconventional user interfaces often result in complicated key sequencesand menu hierarchies that must be memorized and accessed by the user.

Many conventional user interfaces, such as those that include physicalpushbuttons, are also inflexible. This may prevent a user interface frombeing configured and/or adapted by either an application running on theportable device or by users. When coupled with the time consumingrequirement to memorize multiple key sequences and menu hierarchies, andthe difficulty in activating a desired pushbutton, such inflexibility isfrustrating to most users.

To avoid problems associated with pushbuttons and complex menu systems,portable electronic devices may use touch screen displays with simpleand intuitive interfaces. Each set of applications may require aspecific set of touch commands, however in many cases commands areobvious and require very little or no learning time. Conventionalinterfaces make some sophisticated software tools unusable by manypeople not skilled in using high-tech gadgets. Accordingly, there is aneed for touch screen display electronic devices with more transparentand intuitive user interfaces. Such interfaces increase theeffectiveness, efficiency and user satisfaction with portablemultifunction devices. The need to elaborate methods of touch screendevice user's gesture recognition and flexible touch commands has beenrecognized in both industry and academia. Numerous inventions have beenreported in that area. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 7,519,223“Recognizing gestures and using gestures for interacting with softwareapplications” by Dehlin et al, an interactive display table is describedthat senses and infers natural hand or finger positions, or movement ofan object, to detect gestures. Specific gestures are used to executeapplications, carryout functions in an application, create a virtualobject, or do other interactions, each of which is associated with adifferent gesture.

Unfortunately, there are few if any systems applying touch screentechnology to important tasks related to processing data records. Oneimportant set of applications that could greatly benefit from a new andintuitive interface based on touch screen display technology is analysisof data records and/or files with similar content. For example, medicalrecords which are being currently transferred from paper to electronicformat(s). Advancements in online and document tracking technologies(e.g., XML, SGML, etc.) make it possible to standardize medical records.E.g., U.S. Pat. No. 7,624,027 “Method and system for automated medicalrecords processing” by Stern et al provides a means for reducing thecomplexity of collecting patient information and helps to generate theappropriate number and type of medical codes for a specific type ofmedical process or practice when processed. One embodiment also includesprocessing applications that allow easy and automated collection,processing, displaying and recording of medical codes (e.g., diagnosiscodes, billing codes, insurance codes, etc.), medical records and othermedical data. The medical codes, records and data including patientencounter information are displayed in real-time on electronic templatesprior to, during or immediately after a patient encounter.

In the United States, the development of standards for ElectronicMedical Records (EMR) interoperability is at the forefront of thenational health care agenda. EMRs are an important factor ininteroperability and sharing data between practicing physicians,pharmacies and hospitals. Many physicians currently have computerizedpractice management systems that can be used in conjunction with healthinformation exchange (HIE), allowing for first steps in sharing patientinformation (lab results, public health reporting) which are necessaryfor timely, patient-centered and portable care. In the United States,approximately one-quarter of office-based physicians reported fully orpartially using EMR systems in 2005. A complete EMR system has fourbasic functions: computerized orders for prescriptions, computerizedorders for tests, reporting of test results, and physician notes. Duringexamination of a patient's medical history it is often valuable toexamine and compare medical records of relatives because such recordsmay provide additional information related to the patient's medicalissue. Therefore, a system, method and computer readable mediumfacilitating such examination and comparison is needed. With the growingpopularity of touch screen technology, it is necessary to deploy suchfeatures on computing devices with touch screen interfaces. Ease of useand intuitive interface of touch screen computing devices will make suchfeatures popular in the medical field.

What is also needed is an application that can be utilized with a deviceincluding a touch screen or display (such as a mobile device or desktopmonitor) that allows the user to align data, displayed on a touchscreen, according to an identifier or tag associated with one or moredata units. The tag could be a time tag, for example, a timestamprelating data units to events that occurred sometime in the past or willoccur in the future. Alternatively, the tag could be the distance from areference point, and it could be associated with data units describingreal estate items such as houses, office buildings, data centers, etc.Applications taking advantage of such commands will be described inembodiments below. Some of the applications can be specialized (e.g., inthe medical field) and suitable for touch screen devices larger than theones used in mobile handset devices. In the embodiments below, thebenefits of relevant simple and intuitive touch screen commands will bedisclosed.

The present invention can be used with various applications. Theseapplications include but are not limited to the analysis of medicalreports, displaying numerous historic events, for example, in museums orin schools during history lessons. These applications are given only asexamples, and it should be noted that the invented touch screen commandscould also be used in other applications such as map applications. Anyperson skilled in the art will recognize that this invention can be usedin many other applications.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide a method for analyzingdata records using a touch screen interface. The method generallyincludes receiving a touch event from the touch screen interface torelate a first data object with at least a second data object, inresponse to receiving the touch event, retrieving at least one datarecord of the first data object relating to the second data object usinga unique identifier of the first data object and constructing a timechart of the first data object for the retrieved at least one datarecord based on a time parameter from the retrieved record of the firstdata object.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide an apparatus foranalyzing data records using a touch screen interface. The apparatusgenerally includes at least one processor and a memory coupled to the atleast one processor. The processor is generally configured to receive atouch event from the touch screen interface to relate a first dataobject with at least a second data object, in response to receiving thetouch event, retrieve at least one data record of the first data objectrelating to the second data object using a unique identifier of thefirst data object and construct a time chart of the first data objectfor the retrieved at least one data record based on a time parameterfrom the retrieved record of the first data object.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide a computer-programproduct for analyzing data records using a touch screen interface, thecomputer-program product generally including a computer-readable mediumcomprising instructions for receiving a touch event from the touchscreen interface to relate a first data object with at least a seconddata object, in response to receiving the touch event, retrieving atleast one data record of the first data object relating to the seconddata object using a unique identifier of the first data object andconstructing a time chart of the first data object for the retrieved atleast one data record based on a time parameter from the retrievedrecord of the first data object.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a functional block diagram of a generallyconventional computing device or personal computer that is suitable foranalysis of data records in connection with an interactive displaytable, in accord with one embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 illustrates a system with a touch screen capable of detectingtouch events in accordance with one embodiment of the presentapplication;

FIG. 3A illustrates selection of people in a family tree in accordancewith one embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3B illustrates a user moving people selected from the family treeinto a corresponding window via a touch command in accordance with oneembodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3C illustrates a process of family tree construction according toone embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3D illustrates a process of selecting family tree members accordingto one embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 illustrates a process of a user selecting a set of medicaldisorders that will be analyzed for those selected by a touch commandaccording to one embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 illustrates a process of combining selected family members withthe set of selected medical disorders by a touch command according toone of the embodiments of the present application;

FIG. 6 illustrates a process of connecting medical disorders of selectedfamily members for further comparison by a touch command according toone of the embodiments of the present application;

FIG. 6B illustrates a sample medical record in XML format according toan embodiment of the present application.

FIG. 6C illustrates a sample patient's profile in XML format accordingto an embodiment of the present application.

FIG. 7 illustrates a process of combining selected patients with aselected set of medical disorders and building timelines of thecorresponding medical records according to one embodiment of the presentapplication;

FIG. 8 illustrates a process of retrieval of medical records for theselected family members according to one embodiment of the presentapplication.

The foregoing summary, as well as the following detailed description ofcertain embodiments of the present invention, will be better understoodwhen read in conjunction with the drawings. The drawings illustratefunctional blocks of various embodiments. The functional blocks are notnecessarily indicative of the division between hardware circuitry. Thus,for example, one or more of the functional blocks (e.g., processors ormemories) may be implemented in a single piece of hardware (e.g., ageneral purpose signal processor or a block or random access memory,hard disk, or the like). Similarly, the programs may be stand aloneprograms, may be incorporated as subroutines in an operating system, maybe functions in an installed imaging software package, and the like. Itshould be understood that the various embodiments are not limited to thearrangements and instrumentality shown in the drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS

Aspects of the present invention can be used in connection with acomputing device including a touch screen. With reference to FIG. 1, anexemplary system 1 suitable for implementing various portions of thepresent invention is shown. The system includes a general purposecomputing device in the form of a conventional computer (PC) 12,provided with a processing unit 112, a system memory 118, and a systembus 11. The system bus couples various system components including thesystem memory to processing unit 112 and may be any of several types ofbus structures, including a memory bus or memory controller, aperipheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of busarchitectures. The system memory includes read only memory (ROM) andrandom access memory (RAM). A basic input/output system (BIOS),containing the basic routines that help to transfer information betweenelements within the PC 12, such as during start up, is stored in ROM.The PC 12 further includes a hard disk drive 1161 for reading from andwriting to a hard disk (not shown), an optical disk drive 1111 forreading from or writing to a removable optical disk, such as a compactdisk-read only memory (CD-ROM) or other optical media. Hard disk drive1161 and optical disk drive 1111 are connected to system bus 11 by ahard disk drive interface 116 and an optical disk drive interface 111,respectively. The drives and their associated computer readable mediaprovide nonvolatile storage of computer readable machine instructions,data structures, program modules, and other data for PC 12. Although theexemplary environment described herein employs a hard disk and removableoptical disk, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art thatother types of computer readable media, which can store data and machineinstructions that are accessible by a computer, such as magnetic disks,magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, digital video disks (DVDs),Bernoulli cartridges, RAMs, ROMs, and the like, may also be used in theexemplary operating environment.

A number of program modules may be stored on the hard disk, opticaldisk, ROM, or RAM, including an operating system, one or moreapplication programs, other program modules, and program data. A usermay enter commands and information via the PC 12 and provide controlinput through input devices, such as a keyboard 1151 or a pointingdevice 1152. Pointing device 1152 may include a mouse, stylus, wirelessremote control, or other pointer, but in connection with the presentinvention, such conventional pointing devices may be omitted, since theuser can employ the touch sensitive interactive display for input andcontrol. As used hereinafter, the term “mouse” is intended to encompassvirtually any pointing device that is useful for controlling theposition of a cursor on the screen. Other input devices (not shown) mayinclude a microphone, joystick, haptic joystick, yoke, foot pedals, gamepad, satellite dish, scanner, or the like. These and other input/output(I/O) devices are often connected to processing unit 112 through an I/Ointerface 115 that is coupled to the system bus 11. The term I/Ointerface is intended to encompass each interface specifically used fora serial port, a parallel port, a game port, a keyboard port, and/or auniversal serial bus (USB).

System bus 11 is also connected to a camera interface 119. The digitalvideo camera may be instead coupled to an appropriate serial I/O port,such as to a USB port. Optionally, a monitor 1132 can be connected tosystem bus 11 via an appropriate interface, such as a video adapter 113;however, the touch screen display 1131 of the present invention canprovide a much richer experience for the user and interact with the userfor input of information and control of software applications and istherefore preferably coupled to the video adaptor. The touch screendisplay with a touch sensor 1131, communicatively coupled to the touchcontroller 1133. Touch sensor and controller can be combined in oneblock or they can be separate and communicatively coupled blocks as isillustrated in FIG. 1. It should be noted that the touch screen display,the touch screen sensor and controller can be enclosed into a singledevice as well. Various sensing technologies are applied in touch inputsystems currently in marketplace, including acoustic, resistive,capacitive and infrared. While any of these touch sensing technologiescan be used in for illustration of present invention, the preferredembodiment of this invention assumes acoustic wave based touch sensingtechnology. FIG. 2 below illustrates touch sensing system with a touchscreen in more detail. Please refer to the referenced application“Repetitive touch combining method” for more details on acoustic touchsensing technology.

User interface can be implemented through the optional monitor 1132coupled with the touch sensor and controller 1133 though the videoadapter 113 or directly via internet, wireless, or another connection.It will be appreciated that PCs are often coupled to other peripheraloutput devices (not shown), such as speakers (through a sound card orother audio interface—not shown) and printers.

The present invention may be practiced on a single machine, although PC12 can also operate in a networked environment using logical connectionsto one or more remote computers, such as a remote computer 1142. Remotecomputer 1142 may be another PC, a server (which can be configured muchlike PC 12), a router, a network PC, a peer device, or a satellite orother common network node, and typically includes many or all of theelements described above in connection with PC 12. The logicalconnection 13 depicted in FIG. 1 can be a local area network (LAN) or awide area network (WAN). Such networking environments are common inoffices, enterprise wide computer networks, intranets, and the Internet.

When used in a LAN networking environment, PC 12 is connected to a LANthrough a network interface or adapter 114. When used in a WANnetworking environment, PC 12 typically includes a modem (not shown), orother means such as a cable modem, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)interface, or an Integrated Service Digital Network (ISDN) interface forestablishing communications over WAN, such as the Internet. The modem,which may be internal or external, is connected to the system bus 11 orcoupled to the bus via I/O device interface 115, i.e., through a serialport. In a networked environment, program modules, or portions thereof,used by PC 12 may be stored in the remote memory storage device. It willbe appreciated that the network connections shown are exemplary andother means of establishing a communications link between the computersmay be used, such as wireless communication and wide band network links.

FIG. 2 illustrates a system 200 with a touch screen 220 capable ofdetecting touch events in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention. A touch sensor system with a single touch-screen device 250is illustrated in FIG. 2. The touch-screen device 250, communicativelycoupled to a controller 290 through link 240, includes a transparenttouch sensor layer 230 covered by a touch-screen 220 made out oftransparent material such as glass. The controller 290 further comprisesat least one buffer 291 and at least one specialized microprocessor 292.The purpose of the microprocessor 292 is to process signals receivedfrom the touch screen display sensors. It should be noted that thebuffer 291 and the microprocessor 292 can be combined with the existingbuffer(s) and microprocessor(s) of controllers used in other systems.

A touch-screen system comprising the touch-screen device 250 andcontroller 290 may be used in conjunction with a controller userinterface unit 260 coupled with the controller 290 via direct link,Internet/web 250, wireless, or another connection. It should be notedthat controller 290 and controller interface units may be built in tothe touch-screen device 250. Separate units 250, 290, and 260 are shownfor illustrating a more general example.

The microprocessor 290 may output the combined information of detectedtouch events to another device such as a central or host computer 260via lead 245. It should be understood that the coordinate informationpassed through the lead 245 is representative only. In addition,information may be output in many forms and formats by the computer 260,such as text or graphics on the display device 250, a different displaydevice or monitor, a light, a bell, an initiation or termination of anaction, and the like. Therefore, the information passed through the lead245 may change based on the purpose of the touch sensor system 200.Optionally, the controller 290 may be located within a monitor or thedisplay device 250, in a separate unit as illustrated, or within thecomputer 260.

One embodiment of the invention discloses a medical record system.Advancements in online and document tracking technologies (e.g., XML,SGML, etc.) make it possible to standardize medical records. In theUnited States, the development of standards for Electronic MedicalRecords (EMR) interoperability is at the forefront of the nationalhealth care agenda. EMRs are an important factor in interoperability andsharing data between physicians, pharmacies and hospitals. Manyphysicians currently have computerized practice management systems thatcan be used in conjunction with health information exchange (HIE),allowing for sharing of patient information (lab results, public healthreporting) which are necessary for timely, patient-centered and portablecare.

In the United States, approximately one-quarter of office-basedphysicians reported fully or partially using EMR systems in 2005. Acomplete EMR system has four basic functions: computerized orders forprescriptions, computerized orders for tests, reporting of test results,and physician notes. During examination of a patient's medical historyit is often valuable to examine and compare medical records of relativesbecause such records may provide additional information related to thepatient's medical issue. Therefore, a system, method and computerreadable medium facilitating such examination and comparison is needed.With the growing popularity of touch screen technology, it is necessaryto deploy such features on computing devices with touch screeninterfaces. Ease of use and intuitive interface of touch screencomputing devices will make such features popular in the medical field.

In FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B two windows are shown for selecting a set ofrelatives of a patient whose medical history is being examined by thedoctor. The invented system allows the doctor to open a window forselections of relatives of a patient. For the purpose of thisillustration we assume that patient's name is John Smith III, and manymedical records of his family members, electronic medical records of hisfather (John Smith II), paternal grandfather (John Smith I), andgrandfather's brother (Joe Smith) are available. In the invented systemthe doctor enters the patient's name and touches a button such as“EXAMINE FAMILY TREE” (not shown) and the desired level of the tree(TREE_LEVEL). For the purpose of this example, we will assume that thedesired tree level is three, i.e. TREE_LEVEL=3.

The system opens a window 310 of patient's family tree with the title315 of the window (e.g., “John Smith III family tree” in this example)and window 320 of selected family members, which remains empty until theselection is completed. In one embodiment, the family tree is shown as abinary tree with a father on the left and mother to the right of eachperson in the tree. Siblings are connected with dotted lines. In thisembodiment, nodes corresponding to male siblings are on the left of thenode corresponding to the person whose siblings are considered, andnodes of female siblings are to the right. For example node 311corresponds to sister of the mother of John Smith III; and node 312corresponding to Joe Smith, brother of John Smith I, is on the left ofthe node corresponding to John Smith I. Nodes corresponding to siblingsare connected by a dotted line. Initially the names of relatives are notshown in the tree. There is an option, however, to make all namesvisible, or to show fictitious names or other identifiers, if privacyissues are of concern. Details of the implementation of family treeconstruction will be described later (please see FIG. 3C and the relateddescription).

By touching with his finger 300 the nodes of desired relatives, a doctorselects family members whose records he wants to examine and to compare.Nodes corresponding to selected family members are highlighted as shownin FIG. 3A. Details of the implementation of family tree constructionwill be described later (please see FIG. 3D and the relateddescription). Once all desired family members are selected, the doctorcan simply touch inside the window 310 and move inside the window 320 asshown in FIG. 3B. Upon completion of this operation content of window320 “Selected Family Members” is filled. The result of this example canbe seen as window 5000 in FIG. 5. It contains a box with the name of themain patient (John Smith III) on top, and boxes with the names ofselected relatives below. This window will be used later to combineselected patients with the group of medical disorders that the doctorwants to analyze.

Details of how the family tree can be constructed are explained in thissection and are illustrated in flow chart shown in FIG. 3C below. At352, the tree level is set to zero. At 354, Processing unit 112 of thesystem shown in FIG. 1 will parse the patient's (John Smith III) profile(see FIG. 6B), and will extract PIDs of the patient's parents andsiblings. For each of the extracted PIDs, the program running on theProcessing Unit 112 of the system 1 in FIG. 1 will form a query for theprofile of each parent and send it to the data base 1141 at 356. Thepatient profiles corresponding to the PIDs are returned to theprocessing unit at 358. At 360, At 360, the software running on theProcessing unit 112 will form a tree structure and assign correspondingPID to each of the node. The tree level is checked at 362 and theprocess is be repeated for each of the PIDs up to the number=TREE_LEVEL(defined above). Re-call that in our example TREE_LEVEL=3. At 364,graphical commands are sent to the video adapter 113 (see FIG. 1) sothat the tree is displayed on the touch screen display. These steps areillustrated in the flow chart shown in FIG. 3C.

Details of how the desired family member selection shown in FIG. 3A canbe implemented is described in this section and is illustrated in theflow chart shown in FIG. 3D. Once the family tree shown in window, touchsensor of the touch screen will detect finger touches at 372 and reportthem to the controller at 374. In FIG. 1 touch sensor and controller areshown as one unit 1133, but in other embodiments they can separateunits. Please refer to “Repetitive touch combining method” inventiondisclosure for the detailed description of a possible implementation of(acoustic) touch detection technology. If the processing unit 112 (seeFIG. 1) identifies location of the detected touch with a node on thefamily tree, at 376 the corresponding family member is put into the“selected family members” list and the corresponding node highlightinginstructions are sent to the controller. The process is repeated until adifferent touch command is detected by the sensor and controller 1133 at378. This is a touch command shown in FIG. 3B and described earlier.When that command occurs, the processing unit interprets this acompletion of family member selection and sends instructions 380 todisplay selected family members as is seen in window 5000 of FIG. 5.

In FIG. 4 another window 400 is opened by the application which allowsthe doctor to specify medical records of what medical disorders thedoctor wants to examine and compare. For example, if the doctor isconcerned with the lung problems of John Smith III, he may select“Common Lung Medical disorders” by touching with his finger 300 thecorresponding line in the list 410 of common medical disorders shown inFIG. 4. Immediately upon selection of this group, the touched line ishighlighted (e.g., in blue color as shown), and the list 420 of thecorresponding medical disorders from the selected group are shown on theright hand side.

The invented system allows a natural and intuitive way of invokingdesired medical records related to selected persons. Once family membersand a group of medical disorders are selected, the doctor can instructthe system to invoke for selected people all the medical records withdiagnosis related to one or more of selected medical disorders. In thepreferred embodiment, this is done by a simple touch command shown inFIG. 5. The user touches with his finger 300 the window of selectedmedical disorders 5200 and moves it into the window 5000 of selectedfamily members. Auxiliary windows 5100 and 5300 are displayed by thesystem to assist the user with information shown in the main topwindows. For example, window 5100 specifies the name of the main person,whose family members' records are being examined. This is useful in casethe number of selected family members is large and can not be easilydisplayed in the top window 5000. Similarly window 5300 provides a touchcommand method of assigning color codes for selected medical disorders,which will be handy during the next stage of the analysis. The doctorcan select a color code according to the number of medical disordersselected. A simple touch of each medical disorders number in window 5300will provide the user with choice of all available colors and the usercan select the desired color by the second touch. Alternatively, theuser can change color by each single touch until the desired color isseen. Color code can be used by the user of the system to easilydistinguish disorders. For example, mark more serious disorders withdark colors, while less sever disorders will be marked by light colors.In case of numerous medical records represented on a single chart suchcolor differentiation of disorders into two or more categories providessimple and convenient initial visual analysis.

Once the process of combining selected medical disorders with selectedfamily members is complete, two new windows 600 and 640 appear as seenin FIG. 6. Window 600 shown the list of selected medical disorders withthe chosen color codes, and the window 640 has the charts of medicaldisorders aligned with the timeline for each of the selected familymembers. These charts are based on medical records invoked by the systemfor selected family members from the data base. The electronic medicalrecords are built using a document format allowing easyinteroperability. It should be noted, that many medical record formatsexist. Any method of formatting medical records would suffice for thepresent invention as long as it is structured and consistent. Example ofa simple XML based medical record is presented in FIG. 6B.

Another example could be the Health Level Seven (HL7) Clinical DocumentArchitecture (CDA) Release 2.0 standard of EMR representation. The HL7CDA is an XML-based markup standard intended to specify encoding,structure and semantics.

The physical medical records may be the property of the medical provider(or facility) that prepares them. This includes films and tracings fromdiagnostic imaging procedures such as X-ray, CT, PET, MRI, ultrasound,etc. The patient, however, according to HIPAA, would own the informationcontained within the record and has a right to view the originals, andto obtain copies under the current law. Therefore, the patient andpatient's family members can provide all these records or the right toview the records to the doctor using the system. The invented systemalso has access to the profile of each patient whose medical records areavailable to the system. Information in the profile includes but is notlimited to a unique patient ID, ID's of patients parent's, children, andsiblings. Information is stored in structured format such as XML in adatabase. Example of such a profile is illustrated in FIG. 6C.

The system can therefore link patients with their medical records andtheir relatives and the corresponding medical records. As was shown inFIG. 1, the computing device on which the invented system is implementedis connected to the network through the network interface and thereforethe system can easily retrieve desired records from remote database orother computers that provide authorized access to the medical records.

The value of this method comes in the easy and intuitive way ofcomparing related medical disorders of selected family members. If thedoctor suspects some pattern in medical disorder developments amongvarious family members, he can simply connect the circles representingrelevant medical records with the diagnosis shown in the selectedmedical disorders list. For example in window 640, the doctor may wantto compare the medical records when bronchitis was diagnosed to each ofthe family members. This is done by touch command where the doctor wouldplace his finger 300 on the selected medical record and move it fromthere to the next one, etc., thus connecting them with a line. Oncelinking of records is completed, the doctor can invoke all the desiredrecords and ask the system to show full records, or their commoninformation, or the differences. For example, the doctor may want to seewhat symptoms were recorded for each person, and how symptoms for JohnSmith III differ from symptoms recorder for other family members whenbronchitis was first diagnosed.

The doctor can also easily check the dates of each of the medicalrecords shown in the chart by touching the circle representing a medicalrecord and moving his finger all the way down to the timeline. Thistouch command is interpreted by the system as “SHOW DATE OF THE MEDICALRECORD”, and a dotted vertical line connecting the circle representingthe medical record with the timeline and the corresponding timeline nextto the vertical line are displayed in the chart. For example, in FIG. 6the timing 622 of lung cancer for John Smith I is shown as Sep. 29,1986.

Likewise by simultaneously touching two circles representing medicalrecords with two fingers, the doctor can move both fingers down to thetime line to see the time interval between the two events recorded inthe touched medial records. For example, in FIG. 6, two such timeintervals are illustrated for medical records of John Smith I (624) andJohn Smith III (626) connecting first occurrence of Acute UpperRespiratory Infection with the first occurrence of Bronchitis for eachof the patients. The corresponding time intervals are Nov. 6, 1948-Feb.18, 1961 and Mar. 21, 1966-Jul. 25, 1978, respectively.

Examples presented above illustrate advantages of the invented system.The doctor, or any other person examining medical records, can easilyvisualize timing of critical events related to the current medicaldisorder of the patient, and decide where to concentrate examiner'seffort for further medical analysis.

Selected patients and selected medical disorders are combined by a touchcommand illustrated in FIG. 5. User's finger 300 touching “SelectedDisorders” button 5210 in window 5200 moving into the window 5000. As aresult the system retrieves all relevant medical records as isillustrated in flow chard shown in FIG. 7 below, and constructs timelineof selected medical disorders for each selected patient as shown in FIG.6. For example in windows 640, timeline 630 corresponds to recordedmedical disorders for John Smith III, and includes three instances ofacute upper respiratory infection (white colored circles), one instanceof bronchitis diagnosis, and one instance pneumonia diagnosis. Medicalrecords are retrieved from local or remote depositories with secureauthorized access.

As shown in FIG. 6 the doctor has the flexibility of selecting more thanone suspected pattern. For example, in addition to connecting medicalrecords of first diagnosis of bronchitis, the doctor has also selectedtwo other suspected patterns. One suspected pattern of lung cancerrecords, and a pattern of the latest most severe, but not terminal lungmedical disorders: asthma for John Smith I and pneumonia for the others.In order to compare the linked records, the user would place his finger300 on any element in the link and touch with his other finger theappropriate touch-button “Operations on Medical Records: SHOW COMMON” inwindow 602. For example, if he selects to SHOW COMMON Symptoms, thesystem will automatically scan the linked records and identify symptomsthat are common in each medical records and which lead to the recordeddiagnosis. That (as well as additional easily accessible) informationcould help the physician to better diagnose John Smith III. It should benoted that other operations on the records are possible. For example,SHOW ALL, or SHOW DIFFERENCES, etc. Alternatively, the user can usevoice recognition system built into the computing platform, and instructthe system shown the linked records, or to performed above mentionedoperations on the records and display the results.

Flow chart illustrating the process of combining selected patients withthe selected set of medical disorders and building timelines of thecorresponding medical records is shown in FIG. 7. Referring to FIG. 7,step 710 corresponds to the process of the user (e.g., a physician)selecting family members of the patient (described earlier andillustrated in a flow chart in FIG. 3C) and medical disorders in twoseparate windows as was shown in FIG. 5. Step 730 corresponds to movingone of the two windows with selected family members and selecteddisorders into another. The process is illustrated in FIG. 5, and theimplementation is very similar to the window movement shown in FIG. 3Band described in a flow chart seen in FIG. 3D. Step 740 corresponds toretrieval of medical records related to selected disorders of theselected family members and its example of its implementation is shownin the flow chart in FIG. 8.

Step 750 is done by the software running on the processing unit (seealso the last step in the flow chart of FIG. 8). Steps 760 and 770correspond to touch detections of circles corresponding to the medicalevents on the diagram 640 displayed on the touch screen and areimplemented similar to one of the touch detections illustrated earlierand is based on message exchange between touch sensor and controller andthe processing unit (see, for example, FIG. 3D). As was mentionedearlier, various touch sensing technologies can be used in the system.Preferred embodiment of the invention assumes acoustic based touchsensing technology. High level illustration of an acoustic based touchsensing technology is provided in FIG. 2. For more detailed illustrationof how such system can be implemented please refer to one of theprevious invention disclosure titled “Repetitive touch combiningmethod”.

FIG. 8 illustrates a process of retrieval of medical records for theselected family members according to one embodiment of the presentapplication. At 802 and 804, based on patient ID (PID) shown as one ofthe fields in XML formatted patient's profile in FIG. 6C, the systemforms an SQL query for the medical records related to selected disordersof the patient. Referring to FIG. 1, in the preferred embodiment, therequest is sent by the processing unit 112 via the system bus 11,network interface 114 to the database 1141. At 806, requested medicalrecords are returned by the database 1141. At 808, the received medicalrecords are stored. At 810, it is checked whether there are any otherunprocessed selected family members left. If yes, the process ofretrieving the medical records for these unprocessed family members isrepeated until there are no more unprocessed selected family membersleft. At 812, time stamps are extracted for each of the received medicalrecords, a timeline is constructed for each family member andinstructions to display the combined timelines are sent to the videoadapter.

It should be noted that presented system and method and touch screeninterface can be adapted to variety of applications where records ofvarious events are being studied for possible patterns and compared witheach other or some other information. For example, another embodiment isthe system that provides access to quarterly (or annual) financialstatements of companies in the same sector of the economy. In anotherembodiment, historical records of events of a certain type for similarcountries is specified for periods of time that can be compared using asimilar system. Similarly one can easily extend the described system andmethod for analysis of purchase orders, or other type of standardizedrecords where repetitive patterns can be observed and analyzed by theusers.

Those of skill in the art would understand that information and signalsmay be represented using any of a variety of different technologies andtechniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information,signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout theabove description may be represented by voltages, currents,electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields orparticles, or any combination thereof.

Those of skill would further appreciate that the various illustrativelogical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps described inconnection with the disclosure herein may be implemented as electronichardware, computer software, or combinations of both. To clearlyillustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, variousillustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have beendescribed above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether suchfunctionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon theparticular application and design constraints imposed on the overallsystem. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality invarying ways for each particular application, but such implementationdecisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from thescope of the present disclosure.

The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits describedin connection with the disclosure herein may be implemented or performedwith a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), anapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmablegate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate ortransistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combinationthereof designed to perform the functions described herein. Ageneral-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in thealternative, the processor may be any conventional processor,controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also beimplemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combinationof a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one ormore microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other suchconfiguration.

The steps of a method or algorithm described in connection with thedisclosure herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a softwaremodule executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. Asoftware module may reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory,EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, aCD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. Anexemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such that theprocessor can read information from, and write information to, thestorage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integralto the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in anASIC. The ASIC may reside in a user terminal. In the alternative, theprocessor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in auser terminal.

In one or more exemplary designs, the functions described may beimplemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof.If implemented in software, the functions may be stored on ortransmitted over as one or more instructions or code on acomputer-readable medium. Computer-readable media includes both computerstorage media and communication media including any medium thatfacilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. Astorage media may be any available media that can be accessed by ageneral purpose or special purpose computer. By way of example, and notlimitation, such computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM,CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or othermagnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carryor store desired program code means in the form of instructions or datastructures and that can be accessed by a general-purpose orspecial-purpose computer, or a general-purpose or special-purposeprocessor. Also, any connection is properly termed a computer-readablemedium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website,server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable,twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologiessuch as infrared, radio, and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiberoptic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such asinfrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition of medium.Disk and disc, as used herein, includes compact disc (CD), laser disc,optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk and blu-ray discwhere disks usually reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproducedata optically with lasers. Combinations of the above should also beincluded within the scope of computer-readable media.

The previous description of the disclosure is provided to enable anyperson skilled in the art to make or use the disclosure. Variousmodifications to the disclosure will be readily apparent to thoseskilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may beapplied to other variations without departing from the spirit or scopeof the disclosure. Thus, the disclosure is not intended to be limited tothe examples and designs described herein, but is to be accorded thewidest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosedherein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving a touch event froma touch screen interface to relate a first data object with at least asecond data object, wherein said first data object and said at leastsaid second data object are family members; constructing a family treebased on at least said first data object and said at least said seconddata object; relating said first data object to another first dataobject based upon medical information; concurrently displaying saidfamily tree and said related medical information in chronological order;in response to receiving the touch event, retrieving at least one datarecord of the first data object relating to the second data object usinga unique identifier of the first data object; and constructing a timechart of the first data object of the retrieved at least one data recordbased on a time parameter from the retrieved record of the first dataobject and the another first data object and visually connecting saidrelated medical information on the family tree.
 2. The method of claim1, wherein the touch event comprises dragging a first interface windowincluding the second data object on a touch sensitive screen of thetouch screen interface into a second interface window including thefirst data object using a touch input device.
 3. The method of claim 1,further comprising: receiving a second touch event from the touch screeninterface to select the first data object; and receiving a third touchevent from the touch screen interface to select the second data object.4. The method of claim 1, wherein constructing the time chart comprises:extracting the time parameter from the at least one data record; andplotting the data record on a time line in the time chart based on thetime parameter.
 5. The method of claim 4 further comprising sendinginstructions to the touch screen interface to display the time chart. 6.The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a second touchevent to select a third data object; and constructing a family tree ofthe third data object, the first data object being related to the thirddata object and being included in the family tree.
 7. The method ofclaim 6, further comprising: receiving a third touch event to select thefirst data object from the family tree; and in response to receiving thethird touch event, adding the selected first data object to a list ofselected data objects.
 8. An apparatus comprising: at least oneprocessor configured to: receive a touch event from the touch screeninterface to relate a first data object with at least a second dataobject, wherein said first data object and said at least said seconddata object are family members; construct a family tree based on atleast said first data object and said at least said second data object;relate said first data object to another first data object based uponmedical information; concurrently display said family tree and saidrelated medical information in chronological order; in response toreceipt of the touch event, retrieve at least one data record of thefirst data object that relates to the second data object that uses aunique identifier of the first data object; construct a time chart ofthe first data object of the retrieved at least one data record based ona time parameter from the retrieved record of the first data object andthe another first data object and visually connect said related medicalinformation on the family tree; and a memory coupled to the at least oneprocessor.
 9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the touch eventcomprises a first interface window dragged that includes the second dataobject on a touch sensitive screen of the touch screen interface into asecond interface window that includes the first data object that uses atouch input device.
 10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the processoris further configured to: receive a second touch event from the touchscreen interface to select the first data object; and receive a thirdtouch event from the touch screen interface to select the second dataobject.
 11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the processor isconfigured to construct the time chart by instructions to said at leastone processor to: extract the time parameter from the at least one datarecord; and plot the data record on a time line in the time chart basedon the time parameter.
 12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein theprocessor is further configured to send instructions to the touch screeninterface to display the time chart.
 13. The apparatus of claim 8,wherein the processor is further configured to: receive a second touchevent to select a third data object; and construct a family tree of thethird data object, the first data object related to the third dataobject and included in the family tree.
 14. The apparatus of claim 13,wherein the processor is further configured to: receive a third touchevent to select the first data object from the family tree; and inresponse to receipt of the third touch event, add the selected firstdata object to a list of selected data objects.
 15. A non-transitorycomputer-readable medium comprising executable instructions for:receiving a touch event from the touch screen interface to relate afirst data object with at least a second data object, wherein said firstdata object and said at least said second data object are familymembers; constructing a family tree based on at least said first dataobject and said at least said second data object; relating said firstdata object to another first data object based upon medical information;concurrently displaying said family tree and said related medicalinformation in chronological order; in response to receiving the touchevent, retrieving at least one data record of the first data objectrelating to the second data object using a unique identifier of thefirst data object; constructing a time chart of the first data object ofthe retrieved at least one data record based on a time parameter fromthe retrieved record of the first data object and the another first dataobject and visually connecting said related medical information on thefamily tree.
 16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim15, wherein the touch event comprises dragging a first interface windowincluding the second data object on a touch sensitive screen of thetouch screen interface into a second interface window including thefirst data object using a touch input device.
 17. The non-transitorycomputer readable medium of claim 15, further comprising: receiving asecond touch event from the touch screen interface to select the firstdata object; and receiving a third touch event from the touch screeninterface to select the second data object.
 18. The non-transitorycomputer readable medium of claim 15, wherein constructing the timechart comprises: extracting the time parameter from the at least onedata record; and plotting the data record on a time line in the timechart based on the time parameter.
 19. The non-transitory computerreadable medium of claim 18 further comprising sending instructions tothe touch screen interface to display the time chart.
 20. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, further comprising:receiving a second touch event to select a third data object; andconstructing a family tree of the third data object, the first dataobject being related to the third data object and being included in thefamily tree.
 21. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim20, further comprising: receiving a third touch event to select thefirst data object from the family tree; and in response to receiving thethird touch event, adding the selected first data object to a list ofselected data objects.